A prospect Of Belan House, Ballitore,
County Kildare. By William Ashford.
One of the great Irish Artists of the
18th/19th Century.

William Ashford (c.1746-1824)

Born in Birmingham, William Ashford was
an English artist who painted exclusively in Ireland, becoming - along
with George Barret,
Senior (1732-84) and Thomas
Roberts (1748-1778) - one of the leading painters of the Irish landscape.
His uncomplicated topographical compositions, complete with their well-ordered
estates and parklands, were designed to satisfy the concerns of his landowning
clientele and thus lacked the romance and atmosphere achieved by other
leading Irish landscape artists.

Ashford first came to Ireland in 1764,
to take up a position in the Ordnance Office in Dublin. He began exhibiting
a number of flower-paintings and still
lifes of fruit and dead game, with the Society of Artists in William
Street, progressing thereafter to classical landscapes until the Society
disbanded in 1780. No art shows were staged in Dublin until 1800 when
a new Irish Artists Society was formed, so meantime Ashford exhibited
in London and rapidly established himself as one of the leading exponents
of landscape painting in
Ireland.

Following disagreements between various
artist groups in Dublin (1800-1812), Ashford was elected President of
the newly formed Irish Society of Artists. Then, in 1823, after years
of personal campaigning, he became a founding member of the first national
artist body - the Royal
Hibernian Academy, which elected him their first President. He, together
with William Cuming and Thomas Sautelle
Roberts, were given the task of selecting 14 academicians and 10 associates.
Sadly, he died the following year, aged 78.

As a landscape painter, Ashford favoured
idyllic, topographical views - largely of peaceful, neat farmlands, parks
and grounds of country estates, or rivers and valleys. He rarely attempted
the dramatic style landscapes favoured by other Irish artists of the day.
Later in life he extended his range to include a number of coastal sea-views.
Although largely untrained, his imaginary vistas proved exceptionally
popular with his land-owning patrons like Lord Fitzwilliam, and he became
one of the most successful Irish
artists of the 18th century and early 19th
century.